An Aurochs Update: A Review of 2013

It was a big year for us here at Aurochs, and we wanted to share with you guys what we’ve accomplished, where we are now, and where we’re heading. None of this would have been possible without the support of you all; our friends, family, advocates, and supporters.

Federal License: A few months back, we attained our federal brewing licence. Though it was delayed a bit due to the government shutdown, they awarded it to us the day after the shutdown ended.

State License: More recently, we finally secured our state license. This gives us the go-ahead to start brewing at the Aurochs Brewery in Emsworth, but more on that in our next post.

Accepted in Innovation Works: After participating in Innovation Works’ AlphaLab incubator, we were fortunate enough to get investment from IW and become one of their portfolio companies. We can’t express our thanks for how helpful the team at IW has been, offering guidance, support, and funding along the way. It’s great to see a venture economic development firm backing food-based startups like our own.

Doug got married: Our co-founder, Doug Foster, happily married his fiancee Amy Soergel (who was featured previously on our blog here). Congrats to them both! As Doug will attest, starting a company and planning a wedding are daunting tasks by themselves, let alone at the same time.

Built a tasting room: As you may have seen in our previous post, we built a tasting room within our brewery, adding a bar, sign, seating area, and a few other accessories. Once we ramp up our brewing capacity, we’ll be ready to sell growlers and have tasting events. We’ll keep you posted with upcoming events and hours.

Refined a few new recipes: In addition to our White Ale, which has been set for a while, we’ve more recently been experimenting with a dark beer and as well as more heavily hopped ales. Expect to see more info on these in the coming months.

Signed up a few key partners: We’ve fortunately had a bunch of interest in our beer from bars and restaurants around Pittsburgh, and we’ve been lucky enough to find a handful of exciting partners to be our first customers. Our combined goal with these first intrepid souls is to provide you with a safe, gluten-free draft beer. These guys have been incredibly supportive of us from the start, and we can’t wait to reward their loyalty with some of our tasty beer!

FDA Ruling: Though we didn’t have anything to do with it, the FDA recently passed a ruling on gluten-free labeling. You can learn more about the specifics of the ruling in our blog post here, but the general gist is that to label a food a gluten-free, it cannot be made from gluten-containing grains (wheat, barley, or rye); ingredients made from gluten-containing grains, if those ingredients contain greater than 20 ppm of gluten; or contain 20 ppm gluten itself. This should theoretically apply to beer, but the FDA will be issuing a follow-up ruling on beer sometime soon.

Learned a ton: Besides learning more about brewing, beer regulation, and beer in general, Doug and Ryan became Cicerone.org certified beer servers.

Had fun: Though lots a lot of work, it was overall a great year, and we had a ton of fun. Thank you all for supporting us. We know that we’re set to have an even better 2014.